Cosmo Esports team won the Phygital Games in tactical combat CS:GO + laser tag. In the final tournament, it beat K23 in a tense struggle and won the main trophy – the Phygital Flame Cup. Also champions of Russia in CS:GO earned 1.75 million rubles in prize money. Avangar team ranked third.
In the playoffs, the teams held the digital stage up to 16 wins in CS:GO rounds, and then continued the match on the laser tag court. The points they scored were summed up.
Final
K23 – Cosmo Esports – 28:30 (16:10 after the digital stage, 12:20 after the laser tag)
After the first minutes of the final match, it might have seemed that K23 would easily get the victory. This team did not leave any chances for Cosmo Esports on the Nuke map and increased its advantage with each new round. 5:1, 9:2, 14:2… It would have been difficult to win back such a gap in laser tag, but Cosmo Esports eventually found its game, and when K23 had to land a few accurate shots to complete the stage, a turning point came in the match. The champions of Russia imposed the fight and reduced the gap in the score to 16:10.
“There were problems on the enemy’s anti-force, we broke our economy, we had to feel the game again, but still we came back and took the necessary rounds,” Konstantin Raijin Trubarov from K23 explained such a decline in the game of his team.
It’s interesting that K23 and Cosmo Esports met each other in a practice match before the start of the playoffs and energized themselves so that they then won all the stages in laser tag in the quarterfinals and semifinals.
Cosmo Esports immediately equalized the score by winning three rounds in a row – 16:16, but soon K23 regained the initiative and increased the gap to 8 points – 26:18. In the 11th round, Daniil H5G7V Maryshev from K23 stayed on the court one-on-one against Nikolai “Huckler” Rudov and in case of victory would practically guarantee his team the right score, but the Cosmo Esports team player turned out to be more accurate, and this was the turning point of the tournament.
Three rounds before the end of the match, the score was equal – 26:26. Artem Railway Gradovich coped with two rivals who tried to deactivate the Phygital flame – 28:26 in favor of K23, but this was not the end. Cosmo Esports equalized, and in the final round they managed to prevent the bomb from exploding and won the Phygital Games!
“We are tired… In fact, we just outran our opponents. They are really good. Tactically, they played very well. We just had more luck,” said Vladimir Jackpot Dyakonov from Cosmo Esports.
“We are still processing what just happened. I had one thought in my head – how not to finish last. We kept moving. It even turned out to be our advantage that we played an additional laser tag match, understood the ins and outs, and then we were just unstoppable. It’s difficult to evaluate the phygital format, because I didn’t run like the guys. But, in general, it’s cool. It would be interesting to return to Kazan in 2024,” Alexander Ivanov, the winning coach, shared his impressions.
Third place match
Avangar – iNation – 34:23 (16:10 after the digital stage, 18:13 after the laser tag)
The Serbian team clearly did not have time to recover from the hardest semi-final the day before, and it was hard for them in the game with Avangar. Ination led 5-4 after nine rounds, but as soon as their opponent improved shooting and positional play, the course of the match was changed. Avangar could have taken the digital stage with an even greater advantage – he led 15:7 — but in the end iNation managed to slightly reduce the gap.
iNation players could not impose a fight in the physical round. Avangar took five rounds in a row and practically guaranteed himself victory and third place in the tournament, and in the remaining time the teams played for fun.
“What feelings can there be?! Everyone is tired, sweating. I liked the laser tag very much! Emotions are off the scale! Be sure to rest for a couple of hours, and then play CS:GO again! I am grateful for such an organization of the tournament. We got a new and very cool experience. There were good teams at the tournament, we didn’t give away a single card in CS:GO, and this is a great result,” said Sanjar def1zer Talgat in his comments on Avangar’s performance, who with 15 kills was the best in the digital part of the match.
Distribution of prize money based on the results of the Phygital Games competitions in tactical combat CS:GO + laser tag:
- 1st place – 1.75 million rubles
- 2nd place – 850 thousand rubles
- 3rd place, Avangar – 550 thousand rubles
- 4th place, iNation – 350 thousand rubles
- 5-6 places, Sangal and Team Solid – 150 thousand rubles each
- 7-8 places, Lord Rabbit and Flamengo Esports – 100 thousand rubles each.